New figures from the Homes Office show that inmates at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre have been treated for self-harming every week and more than once a week in the last two years.
In 2014, there were 61 incidents of self-harming at Yarl’s Wood which required medical attention, compared with 74 cases in 2103.
Campaigners have repeatedly called for Yarl’s Wood to be closed and vulnerable women held there released.
The centre has been the focus of an inquiry into allegations of sexual relationships between female detainees and prison guards, as well as sexual abuse of female detainees by male guards, some of whom have been suspended over the allegations.
In March, prison security service Serco also suspended two members of staff, after a Channel 4 News investigation into standards of care at the centre recorded one officer saying, “Let them slash their wrists” when referring to detainees at Yarl’s Wood – while other guards referred to detainees as “animals”.
Charity Medical Justice sends volunteer doctors to Yarl’s Wood to treat immigration detainees, as well as campaigning for the release of vulnerable detainees.
The charity described the Home Office figures as “worrying”.
Co-ordinator at Medical Justice, Emma Ginn, said:
“These worrying statistics give an indication of how harmful indefinite immigration detention can be.
“Our volunteer doctors visit immigration detainees and have seen hundreds of cases of seriously inadequate healthcare.
“In many cases, immigration detention exacerbates existing medical conditions – and in some cases, has been the cause of mental illness.
“There have been a number of fatalities – including self-inflicted deaths –
and we fear that with no improvement in conditions, there could be more."
The Conservative MP for Bedford – where Yarl’s Wood is located – has said he wants the Home Office to consider whether vulnerable asylum seekers who claim to have been tortured or abused should be housed in detention centres, even if they cannot prove their allegations.
Richard Fuller MP said:
“It is fundamentally about whether places of detention are resulting in more instances of self-harm – and whether there are alternatives that could be just as effective for removals, but lead to less self-harm instances.
“Just because you cannot prove that you were a victim of torture or rape doesn't mean it did not happen.
“This is an issue I would strongly urge the Home Office to look at.”
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